Justia U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

This appeal stemmed from a dispute between Jaguar and Autobahn concerning chargebacks of around $300,000 in incentive payments the distributor had made to the dealer. The Board of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles declared the chargebacks invalid, and Jaguar exercised its statutory right of review in the state appellate court. During the pending of the appeal, Autobahn filed suit for damages based on the Board's findings, claiming violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) and breach of contract. The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for Autobahn and remanded, holding that Autobahn's antecedent failure to exhaust divested the district court of power to decide the claim when it did. View "Autobahn Imports, L.P. v. Jaguar Land Rover North America" on Justia Law

Davis filed a complaint with the Fort Bend County Human Resources Department alleging that a director had sexually harassed and assaulted her. An investigation led to the director’s resignation. According to Davis, her supervisor retaliated because the director was a personal friend of Davis's supervisor. Davis informed her supervisor that she could not work one specific Sunday because she had a "commitment” to attend a special church service. Her supervisor did not approve the absence. Davis attended the service and did not report to work. Fort Bend terminated her employment. Davis filed a charge with the Texas Workforce Commission then filed suit under Title VII. The Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment on her retaliation claim but reversed on her religious discrimination claim, finding genuine disputes of material fact as to whether Davis held a bona fide religious belief that she needed to attend the service and Fort Bend would have suffered an undue hardship in accommodating Davis’s religious observance. The Supreme Court denied Fort Bend’s petition for certiorari. On remand, Fort Bend argued—for the first time— that Davis had failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. Holding that administrative exhaustion is a jurisdictional prerequisite in Title VII cases, the district court found Davis’s contention that Fort Bend had waived this argument “irrelevant.” The Fifth Circuit again reversed. Title VII’s administrative exhaustion requirement is not a jurisdictional bar but rather a prudential prerequisite and Fort Bend forfeited the argument. View "Davis v. Fort Bend County" on Justia Law

McCall resigned from Shaw and later became the CEO of Allied, Shaw’s direct competitor. Shaw sued, citing noncompete and nonsolicitation agreements in McCall’s employment contract. Those agreements call for arbitration and state that the employer may seek injunctive relief without waiving the right to arbitrate. The state court issued a Joint Protective Order. Aptim acquired the rights to McCall’s employment agreement but withdrew a subsequent motion for substitution in the suit. Aptim filed a demand for arbitration with the American Arbitration Association. Shaw filed an amended petition, deleting its request for damages, and a motion to dismiss the amended petition with prejudice. McCall filed an opposition, an answer, a counterclaim, a petition for declaratory judgment, a motion to consolidate, and a motion for constructive contempt against Aptim for demanding arbitration in violation of the protective order, though Aptim was not then a party to the case. Aptim, without Shaw, sued in federal court to compel arbitration and to stay the state-court proceeding. Before the federal court ruled, the state court issued an order joining Aptim in the state-court action, retroactively effective, finding that Aptim and Shaw had waived their arbitration rights. The federal district court then ordered arbitration and stayed the state-court action. The Fifth Circuit affirmed, finding that the factors weighed against abstention because the case does not involve jurisdiction over a thing and federal law provides the rules of decision on the merits and strongly favors arbitration. View "Aptim Corp. v. McCall" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit granted relator's petitioner for a writ of mandamus directing the district court to resolve this False Claims Act case. The court held that the requirements for mandamus relief were easily met in this case, because the case has been pending for over nine years and the two motions identified in the petition have been pending for approximately four years. The court reasoned that the district judge has had ample time to consider the pending motions—including the nearly six months since relator filed his petition for a writ of mandamus. View "In Re: Richard Drummond" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit granted relator's petitioner for a writ of mandamus directing the district court to resolve this False Claims Act case. The court held that the requirements for mandamus relief were easily met in this case, because the case has been pending for over nine years and the two motions identified in the petition have been pending for approximately four years. The court reasoned that the district judge has had ample time to consider the pending motions—including the nearly six months since relator filed his petition for a writ of mandamus. View "In Re: Richard Drummond" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit against Avondale and others in state court, alleging that defendants exposed their sister, Mary Jane Wilde, to asbestos and caused her to die of mesothelioma. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision to remand the case back to state court after removal to federal court under 28 U.S.C. 1442. The court held that, under controlling precedent, Avondale must show a causal connection between the federal officer’s direction and the conduct challenged by plaintiffs. Because Avondale has failed to make this showing of a causal nexus, the district court properly remanded the case back to state court. View "Legendre v. Huntington Ingalls, Inc." on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of plaintiffs' Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(6) motion to vacate claims rendered moot by intervening legislation enacted after the court issued its judgment but before the time to appeal had expired. In this case, the appeal was mooted by actions of the Louisiana legislature, which was not a party to this suit; no "fault" in mooting the appeal was attributable to any of the defendants, even though some of them were officials of the State of Louisiana; and Plaintiff Hall was not subject to a money judgment or any injunctive relief as a result of the district court’s judgment. The court held that, under these circumstances, the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that Hall was not entitled to vacatur under Rule 60(b)(6). View "Hall v. Louisiana" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' suit based on forum non conveniens. The court held that Louisiana Revised Statute 22:868 does not evince a public policy against forum-selection clauses in insurance contracts. Therefore, the court found that the parties' insurance policy contained an enforceable forum-selection clause requiring litigation in New York state court. Furthermore, the public interest factors did not weigh in favor of keeping this case in Louisiana. View "Al Copeland Investments, LLC v. First Specialty Insurance Corp." on Justia Law

Itron alleged that misrepresentations by three of SmartSynch's corporate officers (defendants) caused it unknowingly to assume an unwanted $60 million contractual obligation to a third party, Consert. Itron eventually settled Consert's claims and then filed suit against defendants for negligent misrepresentation. The magistrate judge ordered Itron to produce, without qualification, materials that were shielded from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege. The Fifth Circuit granted Itron's petition for mandamus and vacated the magistrate judge's order, holding that the mere act of filing the lawsuit effected no waiver of any attorney-client privilege. The court remanded with instructions to reevaluate defendants' motion. View "In Re: Itron, Inc." on Justia Law

Nagravision, a Swedish company, filed suit against Gotech, a Chinese company, in the Southern District of Texas, alleging claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Federal Communications Act (FCA). Gotech ignored the lawsuit and the subsequent $100 million-plus default judgment. After Nagravision initiated enforcement proceedings and succeeded in freezing Gotech's assets, Gotech filed a motion in the Southern District of Texas for relief from default under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of the motion, holding that Nagravision had standing to bring its claims; the judgment was not void for lack of subject matter jurisdiction; service was proper; and Gotech failed to establish that the district court lacked personal jurisdiction under Rule 4(k)(2). View "Nagravision SA v. Gotech International Technology Ltd." on Justia Law